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Oil Patch Insider 2009 sealift includes Liberty, Prudhoe rigs, Nikaitchuq equipment; Parker opening Alaska office; Dowland-Bach sold
Five barges will be part of a Crowley sealift to Alaska’s North Slope in the summer of 2009. BP’s Liberty rig will be on two of the barges — new 455 series barges — and will depart Washington on July 1. Doyon Drilling’s new workover rig for Prudhoe Bay will depart at the end of July on a 400 series Crowley barge; and two other barges loaded with equipment for Eni’s Beaufort Sea Nikaitchuq oilfield development will depart in early June from Houma, La.
All five barges are expected to arrive in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska’s North Slope at about the same time, in early August.
The information came from several Petroleum News sources, but the BP Liberty and Prudhoe information, sans the specific barge series data, was confirmed by BP on Jan. 8, and the Eni information coincides with the company’s development plans for its Beaufort Sea Nikaitchuq project, which is expected to come online at the end of 2009.
Parker to open office in Anchorage; Parker’s Husband, Nabors’ Korach to speak at Meet Alaska
Parker Drilling Co. will open an office in Anchorage in January or early February, company officials told Petroleum News in early January.
The Houston-based firm left Alaska a decade ago during leaner times for the oil industry.
Parker will “staff up its office” in 2009 to support two drilling projects for BP, Parker spokesman Rose Bratton Maltby told Petroleum News Jan. 7.
One project is two new infield development drilling rigs for Prudhoe Bay, which will kick-off after the rigs arrive in Alaska in 2010; the other is for a rig the company built for BP’s Liberty oil field, currently being developed in the federal waters of the Beaufort Sea.
But Parker is also looking for other rig contracts in Alaska.
Joey Husband, who is moving back to Anchorage from Houston, will oversee that effort as general manager of the company’s Alaska unit.
Husband, who previously spent eight years in Alaska as a field engineer for Schlumberger, will speak at the Jan. 26 Meet Alaska conference in Anchorage.
Also speaking at Meet Alaska is Don Korach, an engineering manager with Alaska’s largest drilling company, Nabors Alaska Drilling.
To register for the conference call The Alliance at 907-563-2226 in Anchorage or visit www.alaskaalliance.com online.
Koniag buys Dowland-Bach Koniag Inc. said Jan. 5 that it has acquired Dowland-Bach, an Alaskan-owned company that designs and fabricates control systems and equipment for industrial and commercial applications.
The purchase was made by Koniag Development Corp., or KDC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag Inc.
Koniag is the Alaska regional Native corporation owned by the Alutiiq people from the Kodiak area.
The purchase of Anchorage-based Dowland-Bach marks Koniag’s first foray into the Alaska oil industry. Dowland-Bach was founded in Alaska in 1974 to develop fail-safe wellhead and flowline control systems for the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Several thousand of Dowland-Bach’s wellhead control systems have been installed in extreme locations from the North Slope of Alaska to South America.
Lynn C. Johnson will remain president of Dowland-Bach. The acquisition is not expected to result in any changes to current management or the number of employees. Dowland-Bach has 27 employees.
“Dowland-Bach is already a successful, highly regarded company, with a demonstrated record of quality service and customer satisfaction,” KDC President and CEO Tom Panamaroff said. “We’re excited about the possibilities and opportunities ahead.”
“The new ownership benefits Dowland-Bach, and its customers, as well, by assuring long-term continuity,” Johnson said. “With Koniag behind us, Dowland-Bach is better positioned to take full advantage of growth opportunities in Alaska, the Lower 48, and overseas.”
In addition to the petroleum industry, Dowland-Bach serves clients in wide-ranging industries such as utilities, construction, aviation, government, telecommunications, commercial fishing and marine.
KDC oversees a portfolio of diverse enterprises including telecommunications, fluid technology, environmental services, logistics, information technology, physical security and real estate investments.
While KDC’s past and present assets have included operations and real estate in Alaska, its purchase of Dowland-Bach is KDC’s first acquisition of an established, successful Alaska company.
No news on Exxon invitation to State of Alaska officials In last week’s Oil Patch Insider, Petroleum News reported that State of Alaska officials and the former leaseholders of the Point Thomson unit ended the 2009 portion of their negotiations on a positive note, when former PTU operator ExxonMobil and its majority partners in the unit, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, reportedly invited Alaska Department of Natural Resources officials to Exxon headquarters in Texas after the first of the year. The purpose of the visit was to review the technical information behind the companies’ proposed development plan for the defunct eastern North Slope unit.
Since that time neither state nor Exxon officials have made any public comments regarding the invitation.
Stay tuned. ...
Editor’s note: To submit news for Oil Patch Insider, contact Kay Cashman by e-mail at [email protected]; or by phone at 907-522-9469.
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